The invention relates to a cartridge ammunition consisting of a projectile, and a cartridge shell receiving
Such a cartridge ammunition is used as a live ammunition or as a practice ammunition, preferably in connection with automatic firearms and in particular automatic guns of medium caliber of about 40 mm. For this purpose, the cartridge ammunition is magazined in a belt that, customarily, is guided in the upper portion of the cartridge shell, which faces the projectile. In its bottom the cartridge shell has a flange slightly radially projecting beyond the circumference of the projectile, which forms the bottom of the cartridge ammunition.
When firing the projectile, the belt is pushed into the lock of the automatic firearm, and, for inserting the cartridge ammunition into the barrel of the automatic firearm, two retaining claws of an unbelting device of the lock customarily encompass the bottom flange of the cartridge shell and, first of all, abruptly pull the cartridge ammunition with the lock towards the rear out of the belt and then transfer it into the barrel of the weapon. During the unbelting of the ammunition the bottom flange of the cartridge shell is mechanically stressed to a very great extent on account of the shearing force that occurs. In some cases it happens that parts of the radial bottom flange of the cartridge shell are torn off. The cartridge is no longer held in the lock and also not further transported.
Consequently, the automatic firearm no longer operates properly.
It was attempted to solve this problem by increasing the thickness and/or the strength of material of the bottom flange and/or by selecting a tighter material for the bottom flange. This certainly resulted in improvements, but has its limits, since, construction-related, the dimensions of the individual parts of the cartridge ammunition are virtually determined by standards. Moreover, such measures increase the price for the thicker or stronger material and the additional processing costs.